Keep Your Enthusiasm

Winston Churchill told us that life is just one damn thing after another.
 
The good news is that he also gave us the antidote: success is going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.
 
Therein lies a secret for happiness.
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When it feels like it’s just one damn thing after another, keep your enthusiasm. Your enthusiasm inspires you to stay in the game and keep playing to win.
 
Enthusiasm fuels your ability to deal with what shows up, whether it’s failure, success, feedback, appreciation, or criticism.
 
Don’t curb your enthusiasm, or you may lose the ability to think about what’s possible, do what it takes, and you’ll laugh over time.
 
Life will still come at you full speed; so here are five ways to keep your enthusiasm.
 
1) Stay balanced.
Then you can move the energy, positive or negative, in a useful and beneficial way. If you stay attached to your point of view, you may as well glue your feet to the ground. You won’t be able to move in any direction.
 
2) Accept what happens in the moment of happening. 
See things as they are. You can moan and groan about it, but that doesn’t change anything. Until you accept it, you can’t even look for what’s possible. Don’t exaggerate what can be done. Set expectations so outcomes can exceed promises.
 
3. Be resourceful. 
My friend Wayne Austin used to say, “I am ready, willing, and able. Therefore I can handle anything, and I don’t care if anyone else thinks I can!” I hear freedom in that simple statement: the freedom to be and the freedom to act.
 
4) Stay on schedule. 
It’s hard to stay on schedule when you have dozens of meetings, phone calls, emails, and interruptions. It’s easy to keep on schedule when you only have one thing on your schedule. So here’s a little secret. Put at least one fulfilling item on your schedule each day, and be sure to do it! All of the other things on your calendar you probably get paid to do, and you will do them if you want to keep your job.
 
5) Love it. 
Love is the energy that allows you to be present. Expand your appreciation this week to include not just what happens, but all the people it happens with or to. You’ll find that you lose blame, and forgiveness expands. You lose excuses, and possibilities expand. You lose stress and clarity grows.
 
Use these five ways to keep your enthusiasm fresh.
 
May your day be peaceful and productive.